A solid state light source, such as a light-emitting diode, of a surface mounted type has contact pads for heat transfer and electrical connections. The contact pads, which are generally designed for attaching the solid state light source on a printed circuit board, are typically located on a non-lighting side of the solid state light source, which is intended to be attached to the printed circuit board.
The surface type solid state light source is typically attached to the printed circuit board by soldering. For instance, in large scale applications reflow soldering may be used.
However, within some applications it may be desirable to attach the surface mount solid state light source on other objects than a printed circuit board, for example a metal surface. This gives rise to problems, since it is not possible to use reflow soldering, as the solder material may flow over the whole metal surface, and consequently short-circuit the surface mount solid state light source. Further, since the object covers the contact pads of the solid state light source, they are not accessible with conventional soldering tools, such as a soldering iron or a soldering gun. Thus, soldering the solid state light source on the object is problematic.